K nown for her large-scale works meticulously crafted with layers of Japanese paper, María Berrío’s work is a mediation on the impact of migration as seen through the prism of her own experience. Growing up in Bogotá with her two brothers, Berrío spent much of her childhood on a family farm in a landscape of mountains, animals and flowers, early memories and childhood impressions which have gone on to inform much of her work: “It becomes a little bit like magical realism,” Berrío describes, as Colombia is “filtered through my memory, it’s filtered through my childhood. I think if I lived there, I would see things as they are and maybe it would be a little bit more raw.” Blending biography with a sense of the imagined, Berrío’s art often proposes spaces of safety, chromatic wonderlands in which humans and nature live in harmony.

Predominantly populated by women, however, Berrío’s mythical idyll brings to light the harsh political realities of contemporary culture. Speaking about the women that feature in her work, the artist says "They are embodied ideals of femininity. The ghostly pallor of their skin suggests an otherworldliness; they appear to be more spirit that flesh. These are the women I want to be: strong, vulnerable, compassionate, courageous, and in harmony with themselves and nature." (Georgia Review, Spring 2019).

Dazzling with intricate patterns, The Lovers 3 is the result of the artist's lengthy process in which the surface of the composition is built up with torn layers of delicate Japanese paper (and somet.mes s with sequence and other found materials) and refined with washes of watercolor. The present work is part of Berrio's esteemed "Lovers" series, which was exhibited at Praxis Gallery’s ‘The Harmony of the Spheres' show in 2015. Centering on the celebration of women and nature, this exhibition invoked tremendous demand for Berrio’s works from international collects ors. Whilst Berrío’s work bears aesthetic and spiritual parallels with Gustav Klimt, Frida Kahlo, Egon Schiele, and Hilma Af Klint, who make discreet appearances in her work, these exchanges do not overwhelm Berrio’s distinctive style and clear mission to uplift the women who populate her deeply layered mythological world.

瑪莉亞・貝利奧最為人熟悉的作品，是以一層又一層的和紙精密地堆疊而成的大型畫作。她以自己的親身經歷為起點，透過作品思考移民對人的影響。貝利奧與兩位兄弟一同於波哥大長大，她童年大部分時間都在家人營運的農場中度過，這山上的農場充滿了動物和花朵，而這些童年的回憶和經歷對她的作品影響深遠。她曾形容：「我的作品有點魔幻現實主義的傾向，因為我對哥倫比亞的印象彷彿被我的記憶和童年經歷過濾了。如果我在那裡居住，我的視野可能會更現實和更原始。」貝利奧在個人經歷中注入了一點想像力，因此她常在作品中呈現安舒而繽紛絢麗的仙境，人類與自然在當中和諧地共存。

貝利奧創造的神話仙境裡的人物大部分都是女性，卻同時引領著觀者留意當代社會文化的殘酷現實。當談及她創作的女人時，貝利奧表示：「她們體現了理想中的女性特質。她們的肌膚有如鬼魂般慘白，反映出她們的超然脫俗；她們更像是靈魂而非肉體。我想要成為這樣的女人：強大、柔弱、充滿同情心、勇敢，能與自己和自然和諧地共存。」（《佐治亞評論報》，2019年春季刊）

《戀人 3》充滿各種複雜精密的圖案，藝術家以多層精細的和紙碎片堆疊畫面（有時會以某些特定次序堆疊或加入其他物料），再刷上水彩渲染塗抹，整個過程頗為費時。本作出自貝利奧備受讚譽的「戀人」系列，這系列曾於2015年在實踐畫廊（Praxis Gallery）一場名為「球體間的和諧」（The Harmony of the Spheres）的展覽中展出。這場展覽旨在歌頌女性和自然，更令貝利奧的作品開始在國際收藏界中受到注目。貝利奧作品在美學風格與靈性特質上，和古斯塔夫・克林姆、芙烈達・卡蘿、埃貢・席勒和希爾瑪・阿夫・克林特頗有相通之處，她甚至會在作品中低調地畫上這些藝術家。然而，這些影響並不會喧賓奪主，貝利奧的獨特風格仍非常突出，而她的目標亦很清晰，也就是藉著這些層層堆疊出來的神話世界歌頌女性。